I. INTRODUCTION (HEADING 1)
Digital signals have transformed the world today, and in few areas is it as prevalent as it is in the music industry. Today’s analog-to-digital converters allow us to accurately store the physical, analog phenomena of sound as digital data, with high fidelity and perfect reproduction quality [1]. Digital audio storage is far more practical than analog audio storage for both the consumer and the professional alike. Digital audio is not vulnerable to noise, unlike analog audio where noise is not only prevalent but machine-indistinguishable from the original message [NEED CITE]. Additionally, digital audio is compressible, meaning that we can reduce the amount of data needed to represent the audio signal if we value data storage space over sound quality [2]. We see the natural result of this convenience in the massive spread of digital sound devices both in our portable music players, and in more inconspicuous locations such as the audio tracks to DVDs and the pre-recorded dictations in our GPS systems.
The most important component of any system that stores analog sound waves as digital data is the analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Analog signals by nature have no defined behavior, but digital signals are rooted in the concept of patterns and numeric, mathematical representation [3]. The conversion from an analog signal to a digital signal is therefore the part of our system that will most determine the quality of the digital data that we obtain from our analog signal [3]. Preferably, digital audio should have high fidelity and perfect reproducibility. High fidelity means that our system is capable of accurately reproducing the digitally recorded analog signal without being noticeably different to the or...
... middle of paper ...
...Vardalas, "Pulse Code Modulation: It all Started 75 Years Ago with Alec Reeves," IEEE, June 2012. [Online]. Available: http://www.todaysengineer.org/2012/Jun/history.asp. [Accessed 14 November 2013].
[18] Library of Congress, "Linear Pulse Code Modulated Audio (LPCM)," National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, 19 February 2008. [Online]. Available: http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/fdd000011.shtml. [Accessed 14 November 2013].
[19] John, "Analog to Digital Converters (A/D)," Circuitstoday.com, 24 June 2011. [Online]. Available: http://www.circuitstoday.com/analog-to-digital-converters-ad. [Accessed 14 November 2013].
[20] M. Rouse, "analog-to-digital conversion (ADC)," TechTarget, April 2005. [Online]. Available: http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/definition/analog-to-digital-conversion. [Accessed 11 November 2013].
...improve the sound quality was parallel compression. Having applied it, the sound became more ‘solid’ and ‘full’ (Kärkkäinen, 2011) (recordingrevolution, 2010).
Owsinski, Bobby. The Mastering Engineer's Handbook: The Audio Mastering Handbook. Boston, MAT: Thomson Course Technology PTR, 2008. Print.
The Poe Decoder. Home page. 12 April 2001. The Poe Decoder. 5 July 2001 www.poedecoder.com>
The Use of Electronic Technology in 20th and 21st Century Music In this essay, I have examined the use of electronic technology within 20th and 21st Century music. This has involved analysis of the development and continuing refinement of the computer in today’s music industry, as well as the theory of the synthesiser and the various pioneers of electronic technology, including Dr. Robert Moog and Les Paul. Also within the essay, I have discussed the increasing use of computers in the recording studio. The computer has become an indispensable tool in ensuring that both recording and playback sound quality is kept at the maximum possible level. Many positive ideas have come from the continued onslaught of computerisation.
Different devices can change music immensely. For example, many people think of an instrument as something that involves keys, valves, or strings, but the truth is that something as simple as your voice or as complicated as a computer can create music just the same as a traditional instrument. Before fancy sound boards and computers were around to manipulate music into almost unnatural perfection, there was just a person with their instrument and an audience. If somebody messed up then it would be heard, but the world wouldn’t end. Now it is completely absurd to hear music that is not completely perfect thanks to the use of sound editing software, autotune, and lip
Firstly ‘sound’ will be compared in relation to use of instrument related technology. Next the sound will be compared through the use of recording and production related technology.
When it comes to recording in a modern day environment DAW’s (digital audio workstation) are an essential piece of equipment if professional standard results are desired. Although DAW’s are considered a modern technological advancement the first attempt at a DAW was in 1977 and it came from Dr. Tom Stockham’s Soundstream (See references for full description) digital system. It had very powerful editing capabilities and for its time a very advanced crossfader but was still primitive compared to today’s standard. At this moment there are 100’s of DAW’s on the market but arguably there some obvious leaders. Avid’s Pro Tools has been the go to DAW for any professional studio for the past 20 years and although there have been rumors of Avid going out of business and the features in Pro Tools becoming dated, Pro Tools is still a viable option for studios worldwide. Logic Pro has risen to the fore-front of the industry in recent years due to its easy to use interface that is possible of producing professional results. Ableton Live strays away from a hardware instrument music environment to cater for electronic music users. Audio to MIDI is a main focus along with the critically acclaimed Max for Live used for live performances by many current EDM artists. Each individual DAW has its own pros and cons and comparing these can highlight which DAW is the best for what task.
Jenkins, Henry. "Contacting the Past; Early Radio and the Digital Revolution." MIT Communications Forum. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
Perhaps one of the greatest advancements in music that we use on a daily basis, the MP3 file, could also be one of our worst findings! The main idea of the documentary, The Distortion Of Sound, is that artists music is being distorted through modern technology; therefore sucking the originality and feeling out of their music when they put everything they have into their music.
Digital technology is rapidly becoming integrated into fireground operations because, in general, voice clarity is much better than conventional radio, because it is easier to encrypt than analog. Mary Jane Dittmar, of Fire Engineering magazine, describes the technologies as working by "converting a voice into binary information and then compressing it. Through modulation and encoding formats, the analog information is converted to digital data, compressed, and then converted back again, while still maintaining acceptable levels of voice quality. Digital technology is clearer and easier to understand than analog technology because background ...
There are a great number of applications for Digital Signal Processing and in order to better understand why DSP has such a large impact on multiple aspects of society, it helps to better understand the wide variety of applications it can be used for. Here we will briefly look into the following applications of Digital Signal Processing and their uses; speech and audio compression, communications, biomedical signal processing and applications in the automobile manufacturing industry. Li Tan [1] goes into detail with each of these applications in his book, Digital Signal Processing, and explains how each are used on a daily basis.
Analog communication employs continuous transmission of an electromagnetic wave form that varies in frequency and amplitude.
1.3.c. Average Daily Traffic (ADT): The volume during a given time period divided by the number of days in that time period and expressed in terms of vpd.
...P, 2005, p 23) Around 2005 cell phones and PDAs were referred to as Swiss army knives of gadgets due to the fact they had many functions in one device. All the big phone companies at the time were premiering phones with more mp3 storage than mp3 player, essentially foreshadowing the future. (Dempsey, P, 2005, pg. 23)An average smart phone in the year 2014 can hold around 8-16 gigabytes of data, and if storage is allotted correctly, the phone can hold thousands of mp3s. Any mp3 player trying to have a foothold in the consumer market cannot compete with a device that is an essential part of an average person’s daily life, and a music player. “Smartphones with increasingly high-quality audio and video capabilities have become popular and therefore hamper demand for products in the Audio and Video Equipment Manufacturing industry.” (Krabeepetcharat, T. 2013. p. 8)
As most of us know, downloading mp3’s has seemed to be a big computer demand over these past couple of years. Typical college students around the United States would spend hours downloading files to their computer that would just contain their favorite songs they listen to daily. But why are these students wasting their time and their Internet use downloading simple songs they could find on CD’s? Well the main idea here is that most of the mp3’s that people download off the Internet are free. You do not have a fee to pay when you download this music. Also, here is the first chance ever where people are able to download their favorite music without taking up that much space on their computer.